Pembroke Lakes Mall Ltd. v. McGruder

137 So. 3d 418, 2014 WL 714706, 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 2578
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 26, 2014
DocketNo. 4D11-4005
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 137 So. 3d 418 (Pembroke Lakes Mall Ltd. v. McGruder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pembroke Lakes Mall Ltd. v. McGruder, 137 So. 3d 418, 2014 WL 714706, 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 2578 (Fla. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

CIKLIN, J.

Pembroke Lakes Mall Ltd. (“Pembroke Lakes”), and Millard Mall Services, LLC (“Millard”), appeal the final judgment awarding June McGruder $269,049.50 following a slip and fall accident. Pembroke Lakes and Millard raise four issues: (1) the trial court erred by denying a motion for directed verdict, (2) the trial court erred by determining section 768.0755, Florida Statutes (2010) did not apply retroactively, (3) the trial court abused its discretion by denying a motion for mistrial, and (4) the trial court abused its discretion by denying a post-verdict motion to conduct juror interviews. McGruder cross-appeals, arguing the trial court erred by refusing to hold Pembroke Lakes jointly and severally liable for the negligence the jury attributed to Millard. We conclude the trial court properly denied the Mall’s motion for directed verdict and the court did not abuse its discretion by denying the motion for mistrial following McGruder’s improper arguments. We also affirm the trial court’s decision to not apply section 768.0755 retroactively, and we certify conflict with the Third District on that issue. We reverse on the issues of the juror interviews and the cross-appeal, and remand for the court to allow Pembroke Lakes and Millard to conduct interviews of the jurors.

Facts

In 2008, June McGruder went to a shopping mall to purchase clothing. The mall was owned by Pembroke Lakes, which contracted with Millard to clean and maintain the premises. As McGruder walked through the mall, she slipped and fell on a clear, slippery substance on the floor. McGruder sustained injuries resulting [422]*422from the fall and received medical treatment for the injuries.

In 2010, McGruder sued Pembroke Lakes and Millard for negligence in failing to warn McGruder of the spill, allowing the spill to remain on the floor, and failing to have a proper maintenance and clean-up plan in place to prevent spills from remaining on the floor. Before trial, Pembroke Lakes and Millard moved for a determination that section 768.0755, Florida Statutes (2010), applied retroactively and would be the operative statute for the trial. The court denied the motion, and determined that the statute in effect at the time of the accident, section 768.0710, Florida Statutes (2008), would apply in the trial.1

The case proceeded to trial in 2011. During voir dire, the trial court asked each prospective juror: “Have you or any member of your family ever participated in a lawsuit as a party or a witness or in some other capacity?” The court clarified that the potential jurors did not need to disclose divorces. Four prospective jurors who eventually served on the jury, Angel, Rhonda, Jorge, and Audrey,2 answered they had not participated in a lawsuit.

At the conclusion of trial, the jury returned a verdict finding Pembroke Lakes and Millard negligent for the accident, and finding that McGruder was not comparatively negligent. The jury awarded McGruder $269,049.50 for past medical expenses, future medical expenses, and pain and suffering. The jury then assigned fifty percent liability each to Pembroke Lakes and Millard.

Pembroke Lakes and Millard filed a post-verdict motion seeking to avoid a judgment in favor of McGruder on several grounds. Pembroke Lakes and Millard argued their motion for directed verdict should have been granted because McGru-der failed to show that Pembroke Lakes and Millard had actual or constructive knowledge of the spill or that Pembroke Lakes and Millard breached their duties of care under either sections 768.0710 or 768.0755. Pembroke Lakes and Millard also argued their motion to have section 768.0755 apply retroactively and their motion for mistrial should have been granted. Pembroke Lakes and Millard also moved to conduct juror interviews on the grounds that certain jurors had failed to disclose their involvement in previous litigation. Pembroke Lakes and Millard provided Broward County Clerk of Court records which indicated juror Angel failed to disclose four eviction and small claims cases during the ten years before the McGruder trial, Rhonda failed to disclose she was the defendant in a civil case in 1991, Jorge failed to disclose two personal injury protection matters, a mortgage foreclosure case, and a domestic violence case during the ten years before trial, and Audrey failed to disclose that she was the defendant in a civil case in 2008 and a small claims case in 1998.

The trial court denied Pembroke Lakes and Millard’s post-verdict motion without a hearing.

McGruder moved to have Pembroke Lakes be held jointly and severally liable [423]*423for the negligence attributed to Millard. McGruder argued Pembroke Lakes owed a non-delegable duty of care to McGruder, and that Pembroke Lakes could not reduce its liability by contracting with Millard to perform mall maintenance. The court denied the motion and split the verdict evenly in the judgment, obligating Pembroke Lakes and Millard to pay McGruder $134,524.75 each.

Pembroke Lakes appeals the denial of its post-verdict motion. We affirm the trial court’s decisions regarding the directed verdict and the mistrial without discussion.

Retroactive Application of Section 768.0755

We first address the issue of whether section 768.0755, Florida Statutes (2010), applies retroactively. Whether a new statute applies retroactively is a pure question of law, subject to de novo review. Smiley v. State, 966 So.2d 330, 333 (Fla.2007).

We begin with an overview of slip and fall cases in Florida. “All premises owners owe a duty to their invitees to exercise reasonable care to maintain their premises in a safe condition.” Owens v. Publix Supermarkets, Inc., 802 So.2d 315, 320 (Fla.2001) (citation omitted). Before 2001, Florida law required a person who slipped and fell on a transitory foreign substance to prove that the premises owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition to successfully assert a cause of action against the owner. Id. (citation omitted). In 2001, after a thorough discussion of the problems associated with requiring a plaintiff to prove the owner’s knowledge and the approaches taken by foreign jurisdictions, the Florida Supreme Court held:

[T]he existence of a foreign substance on the floor of a business premises that causes a customer to fall and be injured is not a safe condition and the existence of that unsafe condition creates a rebut-table presumption that the premises owner did not maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition.
Thus, once the plaintiff establishes that he or she fell as a result of a transitory foreign substance, a rebuttable presumption of negligence arises. At that point, the burden shifts to the defendant to show by the greater weight of evidence that it exercised reasonable care in the maintenance of the premises under the circumstances.

Owens, 802 So.2d at 331.

In 2002, apparently in response to Owens, the Florida Legislature enacted section 768.0710, Florida Statutes (2002), establishing the “Burden of proof in claims of negligence involving transitory foreign objects or substances against persons or entities in possession or control of business premises.” The statute in effect at the time McGruder slipped and fell provided:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Miguel Barrera v. Denisse Rodriguez-Orengo and Carl Lillquist
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2026
Kitty Kincaid v. Walmart, Inc. and Jane Doe, Store Manager
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2026
Barbara Loren v. Once Upon a Time Group, Corp.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2025
Amorim v. Walmart, Inc.
S.D. Florida, 2025
Publix Super Markets, Inc. v. Joseph Safonte
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2024
Elizabeth Sentz v. Bonefish Grill, LLC
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2023
Vanessa Sutton v. Wal-Mart Stores East, LP
64 F.4th 1166 (Eleventh Circuit, 2023)
TOPVALCO INC. v. MICHAEL A. WOLFF
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2023
PUBLIX SUPER MARKETS, INC. v. ERNESTO BLANCO
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2023
SARAH BENSALAH v. WHOLE FOODS MARKET GROUP, INC.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2022
Mokris v. United States
M.D. Florida, 2021

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
137 So. 3d 418, 2014 WL 714706, 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 2578, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pembroke-lakes-mall-ltd-v-mcgruder-fladistctapp-2014.